Expelled: Terminated teachers cash out quietly

In Grand Haven, a veteran public school teacher brought a knife to school to demonstrate how to effectively stab someone between the ribs.

To get him to quit, the district gave him two years of health insurance valued at $35,000.

A Godwin Heights elementary school teacher whose personnel file included reports that he pushed and slapped children walked away with $78,130 in pay and benefits. He spent 26 years in the district's classrooms.

In Grand Rapids, an Ottawa Hills high school teacher received a one-time payment of $17,000 in exchange for his resignation. And that was after myriad negative evaluations and allegations that students were gambling in his classroom.

These cases were uncovered in a Press investigation of teacher settlements and their costs.

EDITOR'S NOTE

Gathering the facts: How we did it

The Press put the 31 school districts in Kent and Ottawa counties under the microscope. Each was contacted to discover if teachers were fired, forcibly resigned or were subject to a last-chance agreement over the past four years, the period allowed under the Freedom of Information Act. The Press also combed through more than 1,000 pages of personnel files to determine what led to the departures and calculated the cost of each one.

They join several high-profile examples of bad behavior this year by teachers: West Ottawa's Karl Nadolsky, accused of giving answers during a test; Zeeland's Timothy Oonk, accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a student; and Comstock Park's James Idziak, charged with drunken driving, fleeing police and buying booze for students.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Press asked all 31 school districts in Kent and Ottawa counties for their resignation and termination agreements with individual teachers over the last four years, which is as far back as the law allows. All the documents reviewed -- more than 1,000 pages -- were subject to public disclosure.

The results show that 17 districts ousted 29 teachers, most of them with 10 or more years of experience. The districts paid $760,000 in salaries and benefits to get them to leave. None of the amounts includes legal fees or the cost of substitute teachers.

Other findings:

• While bad behavior gets most people fired, teachers can use the leverage that tenure and other job protections give them to make a deal in exchange for their resignation.

• Resignations are the preferred -- and much less public -- route to getting rid of a teacher. Because of the expense, only rarely do districts go to the Michigan Tenure Commission.

• Most of the buyouts ranged from $5,000 to $75,000, but one topped $100,000. In about half of the cases, districts were able to oust teachers at a cost less than $25,000. Six walked away with no compensation or benefits.

• The amount of public disclosure varies widely by district when a teacher agrees to leave. Some administrators will write a letter of recommendation and shred negative evaluations, leaving little or no evidence of incompetence or misconduct.

BY THE NUMBERS

Money for nothing

School districts pay top dollar to get teachers to leave. Here are the most expensive departures from Kent and Ottawa counties, and what each teacher was accused of. The amounts are for pay and benefits only.

The Press investigation focuses on a minute number of teachers. The region's 31 districts employ 10,250 teachers and most do their jobs with excellence, educators say.

"More than 90 percent of the teachers in my building are committed and really great," said Bill Trujillo, Holland High's principal, who has forced out a few teachers in his years as an administrator in Holland and elsewhere.

"What we're talking about is a small percentage of teachers who don't pull their weight and shouldn't be in the profession but, for some reason or another, they have reached a level of tenure. Somebody didn't get rid of them," he said.

Tenure troubles

Teacher tenure fuels the practice of districts paying bad teachers to leave. In Michigan, tenure is awarded after four years. Once tenured, a district can't fire a teacher unless it proves, through repeated evaluations or other evidence, that a teacher should not be in the classroom.

The job security is unique, but so is the teaching profession. Teachers have many, many bosses, some with competing interests, including parents, principals, superintendents, school boards and the state Department of Education, said Fil Iorio, who represents members of the Michigan Education Association.

"There has to be job protection from arbitrary dismissal," he said.

Tenure has provided job security for West Ottawa's Nadolsky, who was fired in January for giving students correct answers to test questions -- during the test.

Nadolsky is fighting back. He took his case to the Michigan Tenure Commission. While the governor-appointed board decides his fate, Nadolsky is receiving more than $7,000 a month in pay and benefits, the Press found.

State teachers' union representative Jim Pratt said tenure simply is "due process." Any teacher should be assumed innocent until proven guilty, he said.

Most of the time, tenure is a good idea and good for the profession, said Bill Bloemendaal, a West Ottawa board member who spent 39 years as a high school teacher.

But a handful of teachers, including Nadolsky, have abused it, Bloemendaal said. Instead of putting time and money into a tenure case, Bloemendaal favored finding a new assignment for Nadolsky "like playground duty or something where he wouldn't be in the classroom." No one else on the school board took that position.

In addition, Nadolsky has been accused of sexual harassment and physical threats toward a student, his personnel file shows.

Cost of the fight

Press Photo/Paul L. Newby IIRepresenting the districts: Barbara Ruga, a lawyer for several area school districts, says tenure proceedings could cost a district $75,000 in lawyer fees alone.Press Photo/Hollyn JohnsonRepresenting the teachers: Fil Iorio, who represents members of the Michigan Education Association, said tenure hearings are "lose-lose" propositions.

A district pays $25,000 to $75,000 in lawyer fees alone to go through tenure proceedings, said Barbara Ruga, a lawyer for several area school districts. Also, teachers often remain on paid suspension during tenure proceedings, which usually take eight to nine months.

"I don't think there's a single other employee anywhere with that level of job security. It's the gold standard," she said.

But more often than not, teachers lose tenure hearings -- and their careers in education, said Bob Taylor, who served as a tenure hearing judge for more than 20 years.

The hearings are a "lose-lose," Iorio said. Winning means going back to a school that doesn't want you around.

In Grand Haven, Central High Principal Paul Kunde sought to fire a teacher that he said was performing poorly. He observed and evaluated him 24 times over five months and documented shortcomings in a 10-page memo. This was after Kunde had created an improvement plan and assigned a mentor to the teacher.

The 22-year teacher, whose offenses included bringing a knife to school, finally agreed to resign in August. He walked away with two years of health care benefits, valued at $35,000.

"You're asking someone to give up their career, and it's not easy," Grand Haven Superintendent Keith Konarska said. "We want the separation to occur in a positive way."

Unless a teacher is convicted of a felony or caught viewing pornography on a school computer, for example, an ouster generally starts with repeated performance evaluations by the principal or assistant principal.

"The whole story is document, document, document," said Trujillo, the Holland High principal. "It takes a good two years of intense documentation and you hope within that time they get the message they need to find another job."

Paying someone to walk away is distasteful, but buyouts still are cheaper than spending $50,000 or more to take a case to the Tenure Commission, said Fredericka Williams, human resources director for the Grand Rapids district.

"And there's no guarantee for that $50,000. What if you lose the case?" Williams said.

So superintendents huddle with principals, teachers and union representatives to broker settlements.

Monday, Part Two:
• After the resignation
• Would teachers forgo tenure for $40,000?

The most expensive local settlement in the past four years was $108,331 in Godwin Heights. The 10-year elementary school teacher with a lengthy record of unsatisfactory performance in the classroom got a one-time payment of $24,703 and a full year of salary and benefits.

She was one of seven teachers who received severance packages of $50,000 or more.

At the other extreme, a five-year teacher at Forest Hills Northern High School agreed to relinquish his teaching certificate and leave quietly with no compensation as a result of "inappropriate conduct with two female high school students" in 2005.

He was one of six teachers who signed settlement agreements that included no compensation.

While 17 districts spent nearly $765,000 on buyouts for 23 teachers, 14 other districts had none.

"It's hard to do," Godwin Heights Superintendent Valdis Gailitis said of getting rid of a tenured teacher. "It's hard to say, 'You aren't doing the job here.' But kids can't afford a year of missed growth." Gailitis is now on paid lead after an unrelated management dispute with his board.

Godwin Heights had the most expensive buyouts, with three totaling $244,701. The three in Wyoming cost only $9,590. Differences can depend upon the amount of evidence and the teacher's willingness to leave quietly.

Without exception, the costliest buyouts deal with incompetence, like the accusations against Nadolsky. Cases that involve wrong-doing or criminal charges, such as viewing porn on school computers or drunken driving, cost districts less.

In Comstock Park, Idziak was arrested -- and put on paid leave from his teaching job -- in late April after leading police on a high-speed chase through Kent County. Blood tests show he was drunk, police said.

The 14-year teacher and coach was fired soon thereafter. The district insured him through the summer at a cost of $5,000.

Because of tenure laws, a fifth-grade teacher in Caledonia remains on paid leave since his arrest on a cocaine charge in August. The district is spending $5,000 a month to pay and insure Anthony Marsiglia, who has taught in Caledonia for four years. In addition, a long-term substitute teacher has been hired to take his place.

Marsiglia pleaded guilty to a reduced charge, a misdemeanor, earlier this month so he won't automatically lose his job. If he doesn't go to jail when he's sentenced in January, he wants to return to work, Superintendent Jerry Phillips said.

Phillips isn't sure what will happen to the popular teacher, he said. It's the first time he's had to deal with a case like this.

But if the district fires Marsiglia and he appeals to the Tenure Commission, Caledonia will likely be paying him not to teach for the entire school year -- and beyond.